Optimizing the search engines

Optimizing the search engines
It is very difficult to write about optimizing the search engines in one article, so we have only described something from the aspects related to this subject. Even if the information is stored in one article, which makes it simpler for the reader to read, he can miss the essential information, so this type of presentation also has a negative aspect.

The aspects presented here, are presented from a theoretical point of view, and they are to be transformed into a practical one. The factors which are important to rank a page in the search engines are described by their importance. This information presented in this article can be applied to all the types of engines; it is not designed just for one, which makes it easier for the beginners.

The On-Page Criteria
The design of the page affects the rankings of the page, and we will see how in what follows. The page owner decides how his page should look like. The on-Page design is important but just as important if not even more important is the off-page aspect.

The Title of the Page
The atitle is the most important aspect of the page, when it comes to search engines. For maximum efficiency is preferable that the key phrase to be situated at the beginning of the title. The search engines also prefer the titles that have between 3 and 6 words. The titles longer than that tend to drop a few rankings in the searches, because the extra words often confuse the search software.

It's for the humans too
It is often difficult to create a page with the necessary keywords and also with a friendly title. The title is seen when the page appears after a search. Most of the people will hesitate visiting a page that has displayed by the search engines only keywords, even if the page is displayed in the first places. It is important to keep this balance: friendly for the computers but also friendly for the humans.

The Headings
<H1> and <H2> heading are very important, even if most of the times they are ignored. One of the reason for the lack of interest is the huge size of the headings, the <H1> being also impossible to be used on various sites.

One way to reduce the headings is CSS, but the reduction must be done carefully. The use of {display: none} can sometimes bring a ban. Another way of reducing the size is to insert only the keywords into the headings, but the keywords must make sense. Sometimes this won't work because the size will not be reduced.

The Body Text
Besides the headings and the title, the keywords are also important. The keywords are also to be placed on the top of the pages because those words are primary used. Coherence is also required; the page can't just contain random keywords. One trick to raise your page a few spots, is to use bold or italics words, but do it with a limit, because it can destroy the readability.

Body Text Tricks
If you can't keep long keywords phrases in a body text than split them. The number of the keywords is also important. Try to use two words key phrases once at every 100 words (including I, him, and so on).

The META Tags
The META tags are no longer used by search engines. Google and other top search engines completely ignore them. The description tag is still used in some search engines like FAST, or Teoma though. Try to be as inventive as possible when writing the descriptions to make people attracted to your site. The Meta tags article contains additional information about the META keywords and description, so be sure you read it.

The Off-Page Criteria
The off-page criteria is important when it comes to attracting people to your page. The on-line criteria is slightly easier to use, but the off-line criteria can also be as simple. A great site will improve your off-page criteria because the site's link popularity will grow as the numbers of visitors grows. Also the click popularity will place your page on the top spots is the site is good.

The Link Popularity
The link popularity makes the difference when it comes to the spot on a search. The more sites point your page the higher your place will be. If you use the optimization tricks but you lack links, you can still be ahead of some pages, but when the difference of links is very big; your site will be the one on an inferior position.

You can improve your link popularity by exchanging reciprocal links. Convince the visitors to link your page and write some articles about your page. It is important that the link text to have incorporated your most important keywords in it.